Xancorp Controller Lay Offs Continue
June 22nd, 2042: Xancorp Controller Lay Offs Continue - Four more Xancorp controllers were laid off yesterday as C.E.O. Matthew MacMartin continues to clean house after employees were found stealing sensitive information from docked vessels and selling it to the highest bidder. The number of laid off controllers now sits at fifteen over the past thirty days. There are 185 currently operational Thermospheric Outer Orbital Launchers (T.O.O.L.) in the Xancorp fleet and all except the 12 Consortium-specific launchers are controlled remotely by operators working from a Xancorp base in Surrey, Canada. This includes all military, political, commercial, and civilian traffic. These operators/controllers have potential access to sensitive information as the T.O.O.L. is forced to integrate itself into the core computer systems of any ship it docks with. There are company safeguards in place to prevent this theft of information but any controller with a little skill can still theoretically bypass these safeguards and access the information - and it seems that many have done just that. One example is that of Ben Chapman, a senior controller for Xancorp, who was laid off earlier this month. The company claims he was responsible for stealing personal information from the onboard server of a Strommon Industries private jet. It is unclear what information was stolen as well as what Chapman planned to do with it... but the theft has been investigated and proven. This is only one small example among dozens of other recorded cases leading to layoffs. The Xancorp Thermospheric Outer Orbital Launcher was invented in the mid-2020s as a way to allow fusion based aircraft access to orbit with relative ease. Due to the nature and power of regular fusion based engines, the thrust required to leave Earth's atmosphere would require engines three times the size and weight of those currently in-use around the globe. Then came along Xancorp, a subsidiary of Global Industries, and the ultimate solution was found. To put it in layman's terms, the TOOL is actually a fairly simple concept and design. It is a massive thruster engine that attaches itself to any aircraft currently equipped with a simple and inexpensive TOOL-dock upgrade. Once attached it produces the necessary thrust in order to take its haul into orbit. The TOOL remains attached while in orbit and then following re-entry it detaches and is flown remotely back to base. A Xancorp Controller is responsible for remotely piloting the TOOL to and from docking jobs and the Consortium is the only organization on the planet that own and control their own fleet. MacMartin issued a statement yesterday following this latest round of layoffs, "We are still investigating the situation but through careful record keeping we've managed to find a large number of TOOL controllers who have unfortunately broken their contract agreements through unlawful activities. These men and women will be found and this sort of behavior will not be repeated in the future." These layoffs are of course hot on the heels of Xancorp's unexpected and much-debated purchase of three dozen more TOOL's expected to be operational by the last quarter of this year. Usually a company forced to lay off most of their operational employees would refrain from spending millions, but MacMartin claims it's all business as usual. "I believe the need for our TOOLs will only grow exponentially over the next ten years and I want to be absolutely positive Xancorp is ready for that growth. It may not be the most logical option to spend this much right now, but that will change as more and more people experience the joy of visiting orbit and all it has to offer." "XANCORP -Pioneering Affordable Space Travel Since 2026!"